Insect Encounters
by AliciaRoseFantasy
Summary: Spidey runs into another anthropod-themed hero while out on patrol. To say that things started out a bit unusual between them would be an understatement. AU


**Hello :) Here's a random little story I wrote. The idea's been stuck in my head for months and simply refused to go away, so I had to write it down :P I'm adding it in this category cause it doesn't really "fit" anywhere else. This is the movie version of Ant-Man, set before Civil War, as an alternate encounter between the two.  
**

 **I hope you enjoy and find it as amusing as I did. Feedback is much appreciated :)**

* * *

Thwip.

 _Why does everything always have to happen at the worst possible time?_

Thwip.

 _Like in the middle of a test for instance?_

Thwip.

 _And one that makes up a very large portion of my grade?_

Thwip.

 _I am so in trouble._

Spidey swung through the streets with his mind scrambling elsewhere, as he raced towards a major robbery.

 _Maybe every villain in town knows exactly when a crucial moment is happening in my life, and chooses that exact time to commit their crime? Not at all the other times when I'm free?! No, they can't do that! No one'll ever even give a spider a moment to have his lunch anymore..._ he thought sarcastically, as he caught sight of the target building and moved in, calculating a perfect landing...

At least it would have been, if not for the giant thing that seemed to materialise suddenly out of thin air, right in front of his path.

Whack!

Spidey could just make out the sound of a grunt as he slammed into something solid with one hell of a hard head (helmet?) and went tumbling into a messy jumble of limbs with the culprit, across the rooftop, until he seemed to detach from whatever had invaded his swing space and slammed into a wall.

"Ow," was all Spidey voiced, as he lay amongst the settling dust, trying to gain his composure.

After a few seconds, he grunted—rolling over on his side—and carefully pushed himself up on his hands and knees, while a hand gripped at his throbbing head, which he proceeded to shake. "Hey, you ruined my landing!" he whined at the air, before finally looking over and getting a good look at his "attacker".

A man lay groaning, across from him on the roof's surface. At least, he was pretty sure it was a man; one could never be sure these days, not with all the crazy superhumans running around. He was wearing some sort of black and red suit that reminded him somewhat of something a motorcyclist might wear, but given Spidey's profession, he could spot the look of a supposed "superhero" costume anywhere.

Spidey cocked his head, settling into an almost curious crouch.

The other Superhero groaned again, before painfully sitting upright.

Now that it was clear, he definitely _was_ wearing some kind of helmet. Even more intriguing was its incredibly strong resemblance to the head of an _Ant_.

"Ahhh, man! What the hell was that?" the _Ant-man_ said. _Could he call him that?_ Spidey thought. _He_ _supposed he could. After all, he did call himself "Spider-Man"._

The man pressed a button on the side of his helmet, and the visor immediately flipped up, revealing his face. "Ughrr," he proceeded to groan, and stretched his muscles, rotating his left shoulder.

"Huh hum," Spidey cleared his throat. "Hey dude, are you okay?"

Ant-Man practically jumped out of his skin, the visor swinging closed within a second, before he turned around to stare directly at him.

Ant-Man was met with the image of Spidey crouched there, still looking at him curiously— the wide eyes of his mask just accentuating the look. "Ahh..." he uttered.

Spidey inched forward a few steps, half crawling along the ground, curious to meet this guy.

"Scott, don't move!" came a sudden voice from an earpiece within the man's suit.

Spidey froze, his companion doing the same thing. He cocked his head to listen to whoever was talking to his newfound "friend" through an apparent earpiece.

From an observers point of view, the sight of them both there, spaced a few metres away from each other—frozen and tense—would have given the impression of two overlarge bugs about to have an all out brawl.

"That's Spider-Man; he's an unknown. He's regularly spotted in the downtown New York and Queens areas. He operates as a lawless vigilante, stopping criminals on a street level, and displays some rather impressive and unique powers—"

"Ah, what Hope is trying to say is, that he's a total wildcard—we know nothing about this guy—and that you're currently dressed up as an ant, and Spider-Man has shown many mysteriously close signs to actually being somewhat spider, so—"

"Umm, sir. Are you trying to tell me that this... spidery guy looking at me right now might actually be seeing dinner?"

Spidey's eyes widened. _Was his natural body language really giving them that impression_?...

"Well, ah...we don't know," the voice replied.

Spidey's shoulders relaxed, having had about enough of listening to this crazy conversation. The guy then suddenly did something entirely unexpected. Within a flash, he'd moved, pressing some button on his glove and seemingly disappeared into thin air.

"W-what?" Spidey stared, dumbstruck, before his spider-sense kicked into overdrive, and he was whacked in the stomach.

Picking himself up from where he'd been thrown back several metres, he caught the glimpse of what appeared to be ants flying away from their location, and if he thought he saw so correctly, a miniature-sized man was currently swinging himself up onto the back of one.

"No, wait. Hey! You don't understand!" And before Spidey knew what he was doing, he was leaping up after them, swatting at the air as if that would do any good. All he received was another punch...only this time in the face.

"Ugghhrr," Spidey complained as he again crashed back onto the roof, on his back this time, and held his 'well and truly hurting' head in his hand. "Dude, that was NOT nice," he voiced, before raising a wrist, and carefully aiming a shot of web at Ant-Man's ride.

His aim was true, as the web snagged ant and passenger, and he flicked his wrist, bringing them both back towards him. "That was unfair. Come back here! We weren't finished talking yet!"

There was a miniature screech as Ant-Man flew through the air, before tumbling off his ride and landing in a small spray of dust on the roof.

Spidey detached the web from his wrist.

"Now, I think we started off on the wrong foot," Spidey said, walking towards Ant-Man's spot on the roof. "Let's start again, I'm—"

Whooom!

One minute Spidey was striding along the rooftop, the next, he was pressed against the ground, one full-sized man trapping him, an arm wrapped tightly around his neck.

Spidey was surprised; this was the last thing he had been expecting. But as he lay there, startled eyes wide, a mischievous plan began forming in his head. If this guy really thought he was a monster, and truly expected a fight...

Spidey narrowed his eyes _. Ok, if that's how you want to play it..._

Spidey kicked out, causing his opponent to go flying, and flipped back up. He settled into a crouch, before a grin made its way behind his mask.

The man scrambled up onto his knees, panicking into his earpiece. Spidey watched, a spark of glee tickling up his spine.

He pounced.

The ant impersonator screeched as Spidey slammed into his form—pinning him to the ground. He stared deep into the man's visor, allowing his large, expressionless bug eyes to do all the work. It had the desired effect...

Ant-Man kicked and shoved like prey about to be eaten, unable to free himself from Spidey's immovable grip as Spidey began to weave him into a web.

"Help! Hank, help! What do I do? Get me the hell out of here!"

A tired sigh came from the other end of the line, before a voice crackled through. "Scott, remember you can shrink, y'know."

"Moron," another voice came—whispered under breath, but it was still audible.

Ant-Man (Scott) froze, all his struggling coming to a cease. Spidey paused, dreading his "prey's" imminent escape, before he was taken off guard by a buzzing spider-sense and surprisingly hard punch to the stomach. He doubled over, gasping for breath, and the Ant-Man quickly began to disappear. Spidey acted quickly, throwing out a web and latching onto the escapee just as he was becoming small, launching him back into the ground. The next thing his target knew, he was trapped under a pair of gloved hands, Spidey having leapt at him.

"Hah! Gotcha," Spidey involuntarily announced before a sharp pain caused him to pull back, yelping, as he cradled his hand to his chest.

Ant-Man leaped away, but the spider wasn't done yet.

The rest of the event was a blur of pounces, screeches, flashing red and gold costumes, and shrinking and re-appearing surprise attacks.

Finally, Spidey sat in a prime position, Ant-Man well and truly stuck from head to toe to the wall in a thick silken web.

Spidey attached the last strand of his prized handywork to the bricks, and crawled down the wall. Putting on an effort, Spidey made his movements as predatory as possible, cocking his head to the side as he approached the trapped superhero. Ant-Man squirmed. Spidey growled low in his throat.

Attempting to move his trapped hand, Ant-Man desperately tried to press the button to shrink him down again, but he'd been made completely immobile—completely vulnerable. Spidey made to move closer, and Ant-Man began to scream.

Spidey clutched his head in surprise at the utter sound of terror, skittering back slightly, the Ant-Man an utterly petrified mess in his web. A voice sighed, most likely with a hand over their forehead, on the other side of the line. Spidey couldn't take it anymore.

The first giggle came out small, and barely there. The next one tumbled out of his throat, until Spidey was a useless, giggling mess.

He fell off the wall, landing with a thump on his back, and tucked his limbs in, rolling helplessly around on the ground in hysterics.

Ant-Man was still.

"Ahaha, oh man, you should have seen your face, Dude! ...And your scream. What did you think I was gonna do? Drink your blood?"

He didn't receive an answer, his companion not getting the joke.

"Oh, man. That was too funny." Spidey laughed, before getting up, and moving over to Ant-Man's confused form. He held his hand out. "Hi, I'm Spider-Man, you may have heard of me. And contrary to popular belief, no, I am not a mysterious, freakish man-spider behind this costume that eats people for breakfast. I'm more of a friendly guy who likes to curl up in webs on rooftops, and stop bad guys. I'm assuming you're new to this superhero business?"

"Ahhh..." Ant-Man was speechless, utterly gobsmacked, as he stared at Spidey's offered hand.

"Oh," Spidey said, and immediately got to work, untangling the man from the webs. He pulled him free, brushing him down and removing the sticky strands with expert and capable hands.

"Sorry about that, I was just having a little fun."

"Umm, right," Scott replied, as he flipped the visor back up, rubbing a hand over his sweat-covered face. He could still detect the chuckle in Spidey's voice.

They stared at each other for a minute, before they both turned to the side as they heard the commotion continuing within the bank.

They stared back at each other, Scott's eyes crinkling. Spidey's mask gazed at him, head cocking to the side slightly.

Without a word, both heroes sprang to action, Spidey shooting a web and gliding smoothly off the roof's edge, and Ant-Man shrinking down, leaping on the back of an ant.

* * *

A police officer stared at the mass before him, a dozen potential bank robbers cocooned in a messy, silver web, looking rather red-faced. Looking down, he gazed again at the note in his hands.

 _Courtesy of your friendly neighbourhood spider, and friend,_ it read _. Ouch, talk about a case of having ants in your pants, not to mention they'll be washing web out of their ears for weeks. Do you think that'll teach 'em not to rob banks? Nah, probably not. Although, I can't guarantee they won't be having reoccurring nightmares for the next few months..._

The man gazed up again at the criminals, then back at the note, and shook his head.

* * *

Across town, a few blocks away, two figures stood on a roof.

"I must admit, you're not bad. Love the shrinking thing. It's pretty rad."

Ant-Man nodded acceptingly at his newfound friend. "Well, I must say, you're not so bad yourself. Where'd you learn acrobatics like that? It's pretty impressive."

Spidey ducked his head shyly. "Oh, well, it's natural, actually. Comes with the spider genes. I made the webs myself, though."

"You made the webs yourself?" Ant-Man blanched, eyes widening.

"Well, yeah," Spidey hesitantly reached out his hand, and Ant-Man's visor flipped up, as he eagerly examined his now exposed web shooters, turning his wrist this way and that.

"Hella cool," he stated. "Dude, that's awesome."

"Scott. You done yet?" The voice came through Ant-Man's ear.

"Yes, sorry, I'll head back in a minute," he answered. Spidey watched on curiously. "Well, it was nice to meet you, Spider-Man, uh, apart from the introduction. We should do this again sometime."

"Wait, what are you doing?"

Ant-Man ignored the voice in his ear, as he reached out a hand, and firmly shook Spidey's. "I'll see you later."

The next thing Spidey knew, Ant-Man's visor flipped back, and he was gone, shrinking in size before him. He was left alone on the roof.

* * *

The evening news of the city was covered in security footage from the bank that night, blasted on every station. The incredibly smooth and stealthy mission was caught on camera for all to see. Many pairs of eyes watched as the ant and spider took down the criminals one by one: the spider from the roof, and the ant through what appeared to be an entire army of the small insects.

The fascinating superhero team up had made it world-wide within 24 hours, and left many wondering just when they may see the crime-fighting duo of arachnid and formicidae again.

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 **Well, there you go. Thanks for reading! And to those who are following Helping Hand, I'll be updating that soon ;)  
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